Rajesh Khanna ( pronunciation born: Jatin Khanna; 29 December 1942 – 18 July 2012, Amritsar, Punjab, India) was a Bollywood actor, film producer and politician. He is referred to as the "first superstar" and the "original superstar" of Indian cinema. He starred in 15 consecutive solo hit films in the period 1969 to 1971. In 1974, BBC made a film on him, titled Bombay Superstar. Khanna is regarded as one of the greatest and most influential actors in the history of Hindi cinema.

He appeared in a total of 180 films - 163 feature films and 17 short films. He was the solo lead hero in 106 films. He won three Filmfare Best Actor Awards and was nominated for the same fourteen times. He received the most BFJA Awards for Best Actor (Hindi) – four times and nominated 25 times. In 1991, he was awarded the Filmfare Special Award for completing 25 years in the industry, and for appearing as the single lead hero in more films than any other male actor in Hindi films within 25 years of his debut. In 2005, he was awarded the Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award. He made his debut in 1966 with Aakhri Khat and rose to prominence with his performances in films like Raaz, Baharon Ke Sapne, Ittefaq and Aradhana. He had 35 Golden Jubilee Hits (where the films ran for more than 50 weeks in theatres across India) in the period 1967–1975, three more in 76–78 and 35 more in the period 1979–1991. He also had 22 silver jubilee hits (that is films ran in theatres for more than 25 weeks) in the period 1966–1991. He was the highest paid Indian actor from 1970 to 1987 where Amitabh Bachchan shared the same tag with Khanna from 1980 to 1987. He was also a Lok Sabha member of the Indian National Congress from New Delhi constituency from 1992 to 1996.

He married Dimple Kapadia in March 1973, eight months before her debut film Bobby was released and had two daughters from the marriage. Their elder daughter Twinkle Khanna is married to actor Akshay Kumar, while they also have a younger daughter Rinke Khanna.

After being critically ill, Khanna died on 18 July 2012. Khanna has been posthumously awarded India's third highest civilian honour Padma Bhushan. On 30 April 2013 he was officially bestowed with the title The First Superstar of Indian cinema at Dadasaheb Phalke Academy Awards A postage stamp, bearing his face, was released by India Post to honour him on 3 May 2013. On his first death anniversary, a bronze statue of Rajesh Khanna was unveiled at Bandra Bandstand, Mumbai.